C3G Strategy - August 2018

As someone who loved the 90s Spider-Man cartoon as a kid, I’ve always been somewhat drawn to the Spidey villains in C3G. Alongside Doc Ock, Green Goblin and the second Kingpin, Lizard is without a doubt one of my favourites to play. Allow me to explain why.

Analyzed Statistics

Left Box BreakdownSpecies – Mutate: can be cloned by JackalUniqueness – Unique HeroClass – Creature: allows him to bond with Frankenstein through Frankenstein’s Creature Command special power—also allows Hellboy and (when combined with Super Strength) Hulkbuster Soldiers to get a bonus against him; but those are minor concernsPersonality – Conflicted: not sure about this one ... actually, I am: it does nothingSize/Height – Medium 5: manoeuverable, can use ladders, and can be affected by a number of beneficial powers such as Carry, but also vulnerable to a number of enemy powers, like Magneto’s throws

His left box can be ignored a lot of the time and you can still make good use of him, but being able to pair him with Frankenstein is a really nice option to have.

He’s durable, fast and dangerous—however you slice it, that’s a good combination, and 200 points isn’t really that much. The only thing he’s missing is range, but if he had that, you couldn’t get him for this price, now could you?

Powers BreakdownExpert ClimbingWhen moving up levels of height to move onto a space with Lizard, do not count spaces for the first two levels and only count one space for each two levels after the first two. You may ignore Lizard’s height of 5 when climbing. Lizard never takes falling damage or major falling damage.

While obviously this power isn’t as good as flying, it’s surprising how close it can be at times. Though it won’t help you cross a river or pass over trees and ruins, when it comes to elevation it can be almost as good most of the time: larger elevation changes can be scaled with as much ease as most figures pass over a small bump, and the smaller changes (the ones you’re most likely to encounter) can be ignored altogether. It’s only the really large, castle-wall-type changes in elevation that are a problem, and even they can sometimes be scaled if you start near enough to them, plus they’re rare enough anyway. When paired with 7 move, this guy is incredibly fast.

Tactical Advantage – High

Tail WhipWhen Lizard attacks with his normal attack, you may choose one figure that is adjacent to both Lizard and the defending figure. If the defending figure receives one or more wounds from Lizard’s normal attack, the chosen figure receives a wound.

This power can be remarkably dangerous—a free wound bypassing all defences is always nice—but not exactly reliable. In the hero-focussed metagame of C3G, you can’t always rely on there being a good Tail Whip target next to whoever Lizard is attacking. It isn’t rare either, though, and Lizard’s fast enough to take advantage of it quickly. In the end, you should probably take any wounds inflicted with Tail Whip as a delightful bonus rather than letting this act as the core of your strategy with Lizard.

Tactical Advantage – Moderate

RegenerationInstead of attacking with Lizard, roll one combat die for each Wound Marker on this card. For each skull rolled, you may remove a Wound Marker from this card.

Oh boy, here it is: the big one. I remember when Lizard was first released; I was decidedly unimpressed. I already had fellow Spidey-villain Scorpion in my collection; Lizard had one more attack and life than Scorpion at the cost of one defence, but, aside from that, their points, stats and abilities were identical—except that Lizard had Regeneration instead of Acid Tail Special Attack. Noting the superficial similarities, I failed to recognise the deep, underlying differences inherent in these small changes and dismissed Lizard as a rehash. The moment I started playing him, I realised just how wrong I was!

While Scorpion is a fairly straightforward figure—criminal and insane synergies, fast, solid stat-line, tanky, rush-in-and-fight—Lizard is simultaneously more dangerous, more tactical and more subtle. While the +1 to attack is enough to make him more dangerous, it is this power that truly elevates Lizard into something special. I will discuss the use of it in more depth later; but, simply put, for the seemingly painful cost of an attack, Regeneration can, with a little luck and the right timing, heal Lizard up quickly and efficiently in the blink of an eye. While the likes of Wolverine and Deadpool can heal consistently, Lizard can heal quickly—and let me tell you, there are few things more disheartening in this game than beating Lizard down to a wound away from death only to see him Regenerate most of them. I’ve never drafted Scorpion after I got Lizard except to make use of his synergies—independent of synergy, I consider Lizard by far the better and more fun of the two.

Tactical Advantage – Extremely High

Super Strength

Perhaps C3G’s most common ability, and effectively a keyword power; it provides certain immunities and allows Lizard to make use of the Knockback (mixed blessing and curse, depending on the situation—minor either way) and Throwing Destructible Object (useful, but mostly minor and map-dependent) optional rules if you use them. Not really worth discussing.

Tactical Advantage – Low

In Depth Analysis
For the purposes of this strategy article, I will be using a slight variation on Agatagary’s chess-based unit evaluation system; for those unfamiliar, it can be found in a previous C3G strategy article.

Lizard is a knight, through and through—he’s really strong and really scary, but he’s not quite important enough to qualify as a rook.

A Wounded AnimalThe most important part of using Lizard isn’t in army building, it’s in timing—specifically, timing the use of Regeneration. You’ll want to use it when he’s badly wounded (since it gives each wound he has at the time a 50% chance of healing when used, the more badly wounded he is, the more he will heal on average) and, since you sacrifice your attack to use it, you don’t want to be too trigger happy with it, as doing so blunts your attack and fails to make effective use of the sheer speed of his healing. (Of course, if for whatever reason you don’t want to attack—e.g. there’s a breathing period between waves of the opponent’s army—you may as well use Regeneration instead!) Of course, you don’t want to wait toolong either; doing so wastes his greatest asset, that being how bloody difficult he can be to put down. Generally, I find it’s best to wait until he reaches 4 or 5 wounds before regenerating—3 wounds if he’s facing particularly dangerous firepower. Basically, if you think there’s a considerable risk of him being killed on your enemy’s next turn, Regenerate!

Another little note: if he can retreat to safer ground (or even a position where he’s more capable of threatening a key enemy figure) before regenerating, it’s worth doing so, even if it risks leaving engagement attacks ... unless said attacks are likely to finish him off before he has a chance to regenerate. Since any leaving engagement attacks he receives will be included in the dice rolled for Regeneration, they aren’t as painful to receive as they would be for most figures.

A Lizard Among MenNow we’ve dealt with Regeneration, let’s start talking about what sorts of armies to build with Lizard ... and before talking about specifically synergistic ones, let’s discuss the more generic synergies—after all, Lizard isn’t someone who needs to lean into synergy to be effective. In general, there are three different broad varieties of generic build for Lizard:

the stat boosters (Captain America (C3G) and Star-Lord): boosting Lizard up to 7 attack, 6 defence can make him even more effective;

the generic bonders (Ms. Marvel, Red Skull (C3G), and Iron Patriot): allowing multiple activations per turn as well as a degree of turn flexibility, these guys can pair nicely with Lizard; or

In general, I find the second two categories to be of more use to Lizard than the first: the ability to activate him exactly when most necessary (whether to strike or to perform a much needed Regeneration) is significant, as is not losing order markers if you botch on defence and get him killed before he can Regenerate (frustrating at the best of times ... you don’t want to lose turns as well). Lizard really benefits from order marker flexibility for these reasons: it’s not easy to just put order markers on him for as long as you think he’ll survive when you can Regenerate at any time, so being able to activate him whenever you want is exceptionally useful ... in fact, I’d even argue that the order marker dumps are better than the generic bonders for this reason.

That being said, there’s absolutely no reason Lizard can’t be effective in an army that fits into either of the first two categories—plus, pairing him with a bonder, while often inconsistent with activations, does mean that you’ll still get some offensive potential on the turn you Regenerate. Not only that, but you could easily run a synthesis of the first type with either of the second two: Captain America’s pretty necessary to use Wasp effectively, after all, and helpful to Ms. Marvel, too.

Measure of a MonsterNow that we’ve taken a look at generic synergy, let’s consider Lizard’s most explicit synergy: his creature synergy with Frankenstein (who is a version of Frankenstein’s Monster who, after having changed his name to Frankenstein, now leads other “monsters” on the side of light while armed with an angel’s sword and a steampunk gun because ... DC Comics, I guess?).

Frankenstein’s quite a strong figure generally—high life, solid melee attack, an incredibly frustrating defensive ability in Undead Resilience, and the ability to bond with another creature within 6 clear sight spaces of him if he ends his turn engaged. Due to that last restriction, it’s generally best to have Frankenstein charge either multiple figures at once, or someone he’s unlikely to kill in one blow.

With creatures like Hulk regularly topping 300, Lizard is at the lower end points wise of Frankenstein’s bonding options, equalling the solid but slow Living Mummy and with only the notably weaker Man-Bat, Vermin, Blanka, and uncommon Werewolf being cheaper. Despite being a relatively cheap option, Lizard remains, as previously discussed, fast and deadly, and an excellent choice. While it may require some fiddling with order markers to get Lizard into a position where Frankenstein can command him (those dual requirements of 8 clear sight spaces and ending your turn engaged can be frustrating at times), with Lizard’s exceptional manoeuvrability it’s almost certain that, if you manage to activate him, he’ll be able to reach the front lines and start doing damage—no worrying about whether he’ll actually reach the enemy, unlike using the likes of Living Mummy and Solomon Grundy. Not only that, but Frankenstein can keep the enemy occupied whenever you need to take the time to regenerate (at least until he falls), and between Regeneration and Undead Resilience, your opponent could have trouble clawing through these two.

The Lady and the LizardTo finish up, let’s talk about a less obvious but no less valuable synergy—as a melee figure with super strength, Lizard can be chosen as Enchantress (II)’s bodyguard. As a solid, flying, ranged fighter with good stats, Magical Defense and, therefore, spellcasting capabilities, Enchantress is strong off the bat. Not only that, but she has, in addition to her turn, a 30% chance of temporarily mind controlling a figure within 4 spaces of her and taking a turn with that figure with her Amora’s Charms power. If you choose her bodyguard for this power, the odds go up to 50%—70% if you cast Enchant on him at the start of the round. Now, being only semi-reliable isn’t great for a bonding power, but it’s really no worse than the bonding powers on Red Skull, Iron Patriot and Frankenstein; plus it leaves the door open for Enchantress to move into using mind control once Lizard drops.

Now we get into the really scary bit—Enchantress’s Beauty and the Brawn power allows her to transfer any wounds she receives from her attacks to her bodyguard while he’s next to her, which means, given her Magical Defense power, that you’ll want to attack and go through her bodyguard first when going up against her. Now, remember Lizard’s Regeneration power? By using that to keep him nicely healed up whenever she manages to activate him, you’ll have a constantly healing bodyguard protecting a nigh-invulnerable sorceress who can keep attacking while Lizard just tanks all of your opponent’s attacks. Now this isn’t fool-proof, I admit: there are several ways in which it can fall apart:

Lizard gets hit with a terrifying volley that kills him in one turn before he has a chance to heal up;

your opponent manages to separate Lizard and Enchantress and keep them apart (figure moving powers are good here); or

your opponent uses auto-wound powers to bypass Beauty and the Brawn.

If these safety valves weren’t in place, however, this combo would be as broken as hell, because as long as none of those things happen, you’ve set up an unending cycle where you can hurt the enemy while any damage they do just disappears next turn. Quite a nice little combo, isn’t it?

Closing Thoughts
Hopefully, I have managed to demonstrate why Lizard is one of the best Spidey villains in C3G. If you haven’t used him so far ... then what are you waiting for? Until next time, may the dice gods bless you with victory!

Comments

With "shark" figures like this that you want to keep swimming around, I also like loading up the numbered OMs on them and backing them up with Oracle for the initiative boost, auto skull, and protection against losing OMs on a bad regeneration roll.